Is Keir Starmer prioritising warfare over welfare?
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Prime Minister has warned the nation that it needs to be ready for war - in an era of new threats including the “immediate” danger posed by Russia. Is more spending on defence going to alarm or reassure people? And how should he answer those in his own party who insist welfare spending should come before warfare?
Later, award-winning actor Eddie Marsan sits down with Emily and Jon, talking about the power in community, growing up in the East End in the age of the National Front, and his message to Tommy Robinson.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:08.0 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:11.6 | We are moving to warfighting readiness as the central purpose of our armed forces. |
| 0:18.7 | When we are being directly threatened by states with advanced military forces, |
| 0:23.6 | the most effective way to deter them is to be ready. |
| 0:28.6 | And frankly, to show them that we're ready, |
| 0:32.6 | to deliver peace through strength. |
| 0:35.6 | These are strong words from the Prime Minister Kirstama. He talked about |
| 0:39.7 | making Britain battle ready armour clad. Is he telling us that we should now be on a footing for war? |
| 0:49.4 | And if so, what does that mean about Britain's priorities? And at a time of increasing unease on the labour benches and among labour activists, |
| 0:59.8 | is there a perception that Kyr Stama is more interested in the warfare state than the welfare state? |
| 1:08.0 | Welcome to the newsagents. |
| 1:17.9 | The Newsagents. It's John. It's Emily. And we're going to start with that defence spending announcement. But stay with us for an absolutely extraordinary |
| 1:23.6 | interview with the actor, the award-winning actor, Eddie Marzan. He's starring in a six-part |
| 1:28.0 | BBC drama at the moment, but he is somebody that you will recognise from Vera Drake, happy-go-lucky, |
| 1:34.5 | Gans of New York, the illusionist, V for Vendetta, Silent Witness South Korea. He is prolific, but he is |
| 1:40.0 | also incredibly thoughtful about the state that Britain is in. And he is a white working class, East End Boy, with a very strong message for Tommy Robinson. |
| 1:52.0 | The problem with, for my experience, and I can only speak from my experience of the white working class, is that we value identity. We value patriotism. we wrap ourselves in a flag, we value tribalism. |
| 2:04.4 | And I think what that does is it allows you to be manipulated by people like Trump and Tommy Robinson. |
| 2:12.6 | These guys used to walk down Bethrick Green Road three times a year, waving their flags, but it never |
| 2:18.1 | improved their lives. You can't eat a flag. But you responded to Tommy Robinson, for all you |
| 2:23.8 | said about not wanting to say the wrong thing on social media, you responded to one of Tommy |
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